Here's a hot topic that was brought to me today by an editor in Indiana, who asked why should his newspaper offer an RSS feed (or news feed), when it could then be used by other newspapers?

For those unfamiliar with RSS feeds, it is a syndication feed on some websites that allows the content of the site to be read in news readers or other websites. This site uses such a news feed in both ways: The content of the site can be read in a news reader and we have content from other sites fed into this site in the middle navigation bar to your right.

RSS feeds serve a very specific purpose and are used to a great extent by many people who use the web. In no way does it make it easier for people to steal content from your site. In most cases, someone who uses an RSS feed on their site can actually help the site who supplies the information with traffic and ad revenue.

If someone were to just take your content without giving credit or linking to your site, they can do it very easily by copying and pasting.

And I believe the RSS feeds can actually help newspapers in both readership and advertising revenue.

If you offer an RSS feed, you are making it very convenient for people to read your articles in a manner that they are most comfortable with. This can actually build reader loyalty and expand your readership to some degree.

Allowing it to appear in newsreaders can also help with advertising revenue.

Sound impossible? Not really.

Our company has developed ways to "inject" unobtrusive ads into the content feed of an RSS syndicated article. These ads appear at the bottom or top of the syndicated article, are clearly marked as ads and are yet another way to bring in advertising dollars to your newspaper.

Mind you, this debate is not whether news is free or not (that can take up many more hours of discussion). This is about how syndicating your news online can work as a win - win situation for your newspaper.